


Burned Like Fire

by Jinxter



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-07-13
Packaged: 2018-04-09 03:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4331412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinxter/pseuds/Jinxter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roughly sketched out during 3A and (roughly) fleshed out (last minute) for SwanQueen Week Summer 2015, Day 1: Bed Sharing.</p><p>Kicks off just after Emma dived off the edge of the Jolly Roger but it was Regina who plunged in after her. The problem is, a boat is not like a car -- it can't stop or turn quickly -- and they drifted out of sight.</p><p>TW: Implied past sexual/marital abuse. Briefest of brief appearances by Hook, who I haven't tagged so as to avoid drawing the attention of Hookers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burned Like Fire

"Regina!" Mary-Margaret's voice trailed off into the darkness, the splashing of waves and the pattering of fat raindrops hitting the surface of the ocean were drowned out by another clap of thunder, although the storm seemed to be receding.

She watched as the silhouette of the Jolly Roger blended into the darkness of the night sky, and she huffed in annoyance at the blonde idiot in her arms.

Having spent decades of her life in a boring little town, she had taken up many hobbies to while away the time, one of her favourites being taking advantage of the heated swimming pool at the recreation centre, and when the fool had thrown herself off the edge of the boat in a ridiculous attempt at fixing the situation and then been knocked out, naturally she had leapt in after her.

Now the boat, not as manoeuvrable as a car, nor even able to be stopped in a hurry, was travelling away from them at a surprising pace, and the idiot Charmings were too busy looking at her to follow the pirate's instructions to help him turn the wretched thing around.

Emma's head lolled backwards on her shoulder, and she adjusted her grip under the deadweight's arms. She didn't want to use magic, knowing Pan would sense it, but she didn't have much of a choice. She placed her hand in the centre of the blonde's chest and pulsed a wave of magic through her. She cringed as inhaled seawater was coughed up against the side of her face, and Emma pulled away from her as she regained consciousness.

Floating at arms-length away, Emma looked around, then tentatively touched her head. "Is it bleeding?"

"A little," Regina replied, and Emma took a panicked look at the water around them. "Sharks are the least of our worries right now, Miss Swan."

"Where are they? What happened?" She asked, still touching the bump on her head and cringing as though prodding herself and causing pain would help in some way.

Regina tipped her head over Emma's shoulder. "They're over there somewhere, turning that rickety heap around." 

The blonde looked into the darkness, unable to see anything. "How will they find us?"

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you took a swan dive off the edge!" Regina snapped back.

Suitably chastised, Emma paddled a little closer to Regina, the current having caused them to drift apart slightly. She felt a firm hand grip her wrist and her heart leapt into her throat until she realised it was only Regina.

"Come here," she barked at Emma, and with a fistful of the back of Emma's loose tank top turned her back so they were both facing the same way. "Keep your eyes peeled for them. Once I see them I can try to transport us back on board."

A moment later, Regina's hand moved around her and pulled her in close, Emma's back to Regina's front, legs bumping together as they both kicked their feet to stay afloat. The blonde's heart again pounded, though the closeness made her feel a little less afraid, if anything.

The water around them began to warm. "Are you...?" Emma began to ask, until a bubble around them rose out of the water and the chill of the water seemed a little less, and without the cold breeze and the easing rain, it helped. It began to glow, not brightly inside, but a shine reflected off the choppy waves indicating the orb they were enclosed in was shining outward.

"Those idiots will need all the help to find us that they can get," Regina muttered, and Emma smiled at her.

The longest five minutes later, there was still no sign of the Jolly Roger and it's untrained crew. Emma's eyes scoured the horizon, but the light reflecting off the water from their bubble was affecting her night vision. Then it flickered, and when it returned it seemed dimmer.

"Regina?" She turned to the brunette, a quizzical look on her face.

Regina jutted her chin forward, jaw clenched. "What?"

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

Emma raised an eyebrow, she could always tell when Regina was hiding something. "The light flickered."

"Yes, fine. I dropped my attention for one second." Regina grumbled and looked away from Emma's piercing gaze, back to the direction she hoped their incompetent rescue team would come from.

A hand rested on her shoulder, drawing her attention back to the blonde. "Are you okay?"

Regina looked at the hand on her shoulder with mild surprise. "Yes, Emma, I think I might be," she said, this time with far less bite in her tone. "It is taking a lot of effort to maintain this protection, warmth and beacon light. But I can feel your magic, and I may be able to channel some of it."

With a glance at her own hand, Emma smiled. "Sure. I don't know how to use it, you may as well."

They both felt a tingling sensation through the contact point, and the water warmed a fraction more. Regina's mouth curled into the slightest hint of a smile, then she reached out for the younger woman. "Here, turn around and keep looking, and stay close." Once again she pulled Emma's back to her front in a vertical spoon, and the bubble around them shrunk to just large enough to contain them, and in response the light shining out over the sea grew brighter. "We should conserve our energy."

Another seemingly eternal length of time later, with still no sign of help, Emma wriggled around. Regina had adjusted the bubble so they were laying, almost like an inflatable pool lounger. The curved edge of the bubble had a similar effect to two people on an inflatable pool lounger in that they rolled and squashed up against each other, although the contact assisted in keeping the magic flowing effortlessly from Emma into Regina.

Before she could even speak, Regina cut her off. "Don't even say it."

"How do you know what I was going to say?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "Because I know you, and I already told you. Rumple will be able to sense my magic-- our magic," she corrected, "and as soon as that walking STI lets go of his dick long enough to turn the goddamn wheel they'll find us."

They were close enough and there was enough ambient light for Emma to see the hatred flare in Regina's eyes. "Wow, you really don't like him."

"Should I?" Regina scoffed.

Emma considered this briefly, the villain-turned-helper, and his creepy yet somewhat humorous ways. "He's helping us get to Henry," she shrugged.

The vein in Regina's forehead pulsed and her jaw clenched. "Yeah, and he also strapped me to a table a couple of days ago so that I could be tortured. What a noble guy," she deadpanned.

There was something other than anger in her eyes and Emma knew it. She knew how Regina had been found, knew the basics about what had happened to her, though apart from a few mild burns on her temples and some bruising around where she was bound, she appeared to be physically unhurt. But her stomach twisted at the thought of the way Hook had pinned her down in their swordfight and alluded to piercing her with his metaphorical blade. She remembered the nightmares she'd had after that incident, old memories released from where she had locked them away, memories she'd been trying to pack them back away ever since. Memories she suspected Regina would relate to, knowing her marriage to the King was... not her choice.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Regina's look was still closed off, but she softened slightly. Then she kneed Emma in the thigh as she scrambled up to a kneeling position, and braced herself against the clear wall as Emma followed suit and they slipped around the curved base of the bubble, the small amount of water left in with them sloshing around. "There they are!"

Off in the distance, the outline of a ship sailing towards them was accompanied by a wailed cry of "Emma!" from her distraught mother.

"Can you transport us?"

Quickly grabbing Emma's wrist in a vice-like grip, the bubble disappeared and they plunged back into the cold water. Any warmth they had managed to recover was instantly gone as the icy ocean sucked it all away again. Regina gasped.

"What the hell, Regina?" Emma exclaimed, spitting out salty water.

"I don't know what--" She shook her head slightly, then grasped Emma's other wrist. "Focus, Emma. This takes even more magic, especially in these conditions."

Emma looked into wide, dark eyes and drew a deep breath. "Ok, go."

Cold water swirled around them, then rushed back, splashing both of them. When they looked up, the ship was closer, but now on a path to sail past them. "Dad!" Emma screeched, and Charming caught sight of them, somehow. 

"There!" He pointed at them, and Hook cranked the wheel, and on the deck both Snow and Rumple stumbled at the sudden change in direction. The boat would still have to slow down and maybe circle to reach them, but they would be okay. Emma grinned and turned to Regina.

Her smile dropped as Emma realised the brunette was barely keeping her head above water. She lunged forward and grabbed her under her arms, and wrapped her own around her back so they were face to face and closer than they had ever been, even though they had been pretty close when they had gone toe-to-toe. "Regina?"

Regina licked her lips. "Couldn't help but transport some of the water around us. Too heavy. Took more magic than I expected."

Emma felt tired, the brief thrill of seeing her parents again after coming close to losing hope gone as she watched Regina fight to stay conscious. "Stay with me, Regina," she said firmly. She closed her eyes, her legs kicking insistently to keep them both afloat, Regina's own limbs hanging limply underwater. She tried to focus her energy on Regina the way she had felt when she first woke up with a lungful of water, and she felt magic in the water around them but she couldn't make it do what she wanted.

"Regina?" She asked again, and began to panic as she saw the glazed look in her eyes, and she didn't respond. "Hang on, Regina!" She said, shaking her slightly, then adjusted her grip on her to that of a lifeguard and began to swim as best she could closer to where the boat would end up once it had sailed in an arc around them. Adrenaline pushed her onwards, but the ship seemed to take forever to get back to where they were. By the time they threw a rope out with two loops tied into the end of it, Emma was exhausted. She slipped one loop over Regina and the other over herself, and felt the strong pull of her parents hauling them in like fish on a line.

As they reached the side of the boat, the rope looped around Regina began to lift her first, then Emma started to rise. As the weight of lifting both of them slowed her parents' efforts, she saw Regina's arms begin to lift and she started to slip from her looped rope. She reached out for a better grip on her, but a fistful of jacket didn't feel enough to hold her. 

"Shit," Emma grunted, and strained against her own uncomfortable rope sling to scramble for purchase, Regina just alive enough to hold onto the rope with one hand, but she'd never hold her own weight. Emma did the only thing left she could do and wrapped her legs firmly around the brunette and relied on the strength of her thighs to stop her sliding descent.

Her father's strong hands grabbed her arms and she saw her mother reach for Regina as well, and in one last heave, the two women crashed over the edge onto the firm ground of the Jolly Roger's wooden deck. She looked up at her father's tearful, cheerful grin, and couldn't help but smile back until his face was eclipsed by the puffy, sobbing face of her mother, who basically threw herself on top of Emma in cold, sopping wet, yet heartwarming hug.

When her mother finally let her go, she caught sight of Hook scowling at them for a moment before his expression switched to his usual leering smirk, and his eyes raked down her, taking in her form as all her clothes stuck to her, and she shivered not just from the cold. Snow helped her to her feet, and she felt unsteady on them, as though she didn't have her sea legs, or she'd become part octopus and her legs were boneless tentacles.

She leaned heavily on Snow as Charming looked up from Regina's still form. "She's alive," he said grimly, and slipped his arms underneath her, lifting her into his arms, bridal style. Rumple lead them down to the sleeping quarters below, concern on his face which Emma suspected had more to do with their use of magic and the possibility of it having alerted Pan to their presence than the condition of either woman.

Charming laid Regina on one of the beds and carefully removed her jacket and shoes. He stopped, his brow furrowed, and looked up sheepishly at his wife and daughter. "You both should probably get right out of you wet clothes.

Rumple entered carrying all the blankets from the beds in other rooms, which he placed on the end of the bunk on the opposite side of the small room from Regina. 

"Can't you help her?" Snow asked him. 

He glanced again at Regina, her lips still tinged with blue, her face relaxed. "Pan will already have sensed her presence, and the Savior's, through their used of magic. There is no sense in alerting him to mine, not when she will be fine once rested and warm." Emma glared at him, knowing it was true but hating his unwillingness to selflessly help them anyway. With a quick nod of his head, he left. 

Charming stood and pulled Emma into another embrace. He kissed the top of his head. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Emma smiled against his chest, "I am, thanks to Regina."

A pained look crossed Snow's face and she glanced down at her former step-mother. Charming squeezed Emma one last time, then released her and left, closing the door behind him. 

"Get out of your wet clothes, Emma, or you'll never warm up," Snow said, as she unbuttoned Regina's wet blouse. 

Emma's cheeks pinkened, but she did as instructed and peeled off her tank, her jeans proving to be a bigger struggle. When both women were down to their bras and panties, Snow draped two blankets over Regina before leaving the room with the wet clothes to hang them up somewhere to dry. 

With a blanket wrapped around her, rough and scratchy against her skin, she sat on the edge of Regina's bed and brushed a wet lock of hair off her forehead. Her skin was warmer than Emma's hands, but colder than Emma's own face, and her lips were still bluish.

Snow re-entered the room and Emma's mouth dropped as her mother began to undress as well. "What are you doing?"

"Hop into bed," she gestured to the empty bunk, now with only one spare blanket folded on the end of it. "my body heat will help you to warm up."

Emma glanced at Regina. "She's colder than I am."

Snow looked at Regina with pity, but an element of indifference. "You heard Gold, she'll be alright." She draped her clothes over the stool at the end of the bed. 

"She saved my life," Emma stated, frustration seeping through.

Snow took another, longer look at Regina, though she didn't seem as affected by the sight of the normally regal and larger-than-life woman appearing so small and weak, but then Emma remembered -- as she did when the reality of all of their existences hit her again -- that Snow had seen Regina as a teenager, that seeing her small and weak may not have been a recent sight to her, but not unseen in the past.

With a glare at her mother, she added the blanket that had been around her shoulders to the pile on top of Regina, then pulled them back and almost roughly pushed Regina closer to the wall. "If you want to warm me up, you'll have to do it while I warm her up."

She rolled Regina a bit more once she was in the bed, manoeuvring her into little spoon position. Emma heard a sigh behind her, then the bed dip, and she pushed even closer to Regina to make room for Snow.

While her mother wasn't particularly warm behind her either, having been soaked by the rain but at least not immersed in the ocean for god knows how long, Regina's skin was cold against her from head to toe. Emma wrapped her arm around her stomach and pressed her cheek against the older brunette's bare shoulder, willing her to warm up.

Some time later, she groggily came to, her mind slow to react and her body even slower.

“Miss Swan, why are you near naked and in bed with me?”

Her eyes snapped open and met with dark brown eyes peering at her over her own shoulder.

Emma slid back slightly, then realising that her mother was no longer behind her, she rolled further away and onto her back, though she missed the warmth that they had managed to generate between them.

She licked her lips and cleared her throat. “Umm. Trying to ward off hypothermia. Body heat.”

Regina rolled onto her back, then slightly towards Emma, and her knee brushed against Emma's thigh as she did so. "I see. Don't you have parents that could help you with that?”

It took a moment for Emma to realise what she meant, and her frown lifted into surprise. "I meant you, I was trying to ward off hypothermia from you.” She softened, and her eyes glanced at plump lips. "Your lips were blue." She cleared her throat again. "And anyway, my mother was in here with us when we went to sleep."

A perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised. "Excuse me?"

"She... warmed me up while I warmed you up," Regina scoffed, and held the blanket against her chest as she sat up a little more and looked around. “Lie back down and stop flapping the blanket, you're letting all the heat out,” Emma grumbled, still somewhat embarrassed.

Regina rolled her eyes. “I'm trying to see where my clothes are.”

“What are you afraid of," Emma said snappily, "that I'm gonna do something... gay?” 

Both eyebrows raised this time. “Aren't you though, to some degree, Miss Swan?” 

Her playful tone was lost on Emma, who swallowed. “W-what are you talking about?”

“Forgive me if I am wrong, but I always had a sense that you had some... sapphic tendencies.” She watched as the blonde stared at her, frozen, her cheeks pink and not from the chill in the air. The sound of footsteps in the hallway finally distracting her from her panic. “Dear, your lack of answer speaks volumes.” Regina said quietly.

Emma looked at the closed door and pulled the blankets up around her a little higher. “Regina, I know you don't owe me anything, but please, not now. Please don't talk about this around my parents.” 

She pleaded with her eyes, and Regina continued to watch her when she turned back to the door and they waited while her parents listened, then deciding the pair were still asleep, the footsteps walked back away again.

Emma swung her legs out of the bed and sat with her elbows on her knees and rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. Her skin had risen in goosebumps that she didn't seem to notice.

“You can stop panicking." Regina watched, but none of the tension in the younger woman's toned back eased at all. "Get back in bed, Emma. You're still cold.” Again there was no response.

Regina decided to take another tack. “I'm not, you know.”

“Not what?” Emma responded finally.

“Afraid." She cocked her head to the side. "Of you.”

Emma frowned in confusion. “You think I don't know that?”

Regina sighed. “I mean, to answer your question earlier.” She wanted to add an 'idiot' into that but held back, sensing Emma was on the edge of doing what she thinks she does best - running.

“Oh," she said, realisation sinking in. "I just can't deal with this now, on top of everything else. Please, I... just don't say anything to my parents. Or Henry.”

Regina nodded, even though Emma wasn't looking. “I won't say anything, I promise. Please come back to bed. I'm cold. And you're shivering again.”

A cool hand pressed lightly against the middle of Emma's back. 

“Come on,” Regina coaxed, and Emma slid her legs back under the covers and pulled them up over herself, lying on her back. Regina lay on her back too, and they stared through the darkness at the low wooden ceiling, their shoulders barely touching.

A few moments later, Regina broke the somewhat awkward silence. “Just so you know, I believe Henry will be fine with it.”

“Really? How do you know?” Emma's response still seemed guarded and somewhat disbelieving.

“I didn't raise a bigot, dear, and I never wanted him to feel he had to hide anything from me. We've spoken of love and I have made him aware that bi- and homosexuality exists. As he gets older I plan to expand on that information.”

They lay in silence a while longer. “Have I mentioned that I am really glad that you're his Mom?”

Regina smiled and closed her eyes, picturing their son's face, and her heart ached at his loss. Her body's exhaustion took the opportunity to catch her again, and she drifted off into an unsettling dream of a twisted game of hide and seek where Henry would disappear as soon as she found him.

A tickling on her face woke her some time later, and when she opened her eyes she realised that she had rolled into Emma, and her nose was now buried in almost-dry blonde curls. The younger woman had a sheepish look on her face, and Regina brought her hand up from where it had been resting against very bare and very toned abs to move the curls out of her face. 

Emma shifted and scooped her hair around to the opposite side, where it spilled over her bare shoulder, the cords of her neck now exposed to Regina and she felt a warmth ignite within her at the move, both at how considerate the blonde was, and at the bulge of her bicep as she did so. She lay her head down again, her chin not quite on Emma's shoulder but close enough to feel the body heat between them. Her hand returned to Emma's belly and she closed her eyes, drinking in the moment and committing it to memory so she could torture herself with it once they were back on opposite sides again, as she was sure they would be once they had saved Henry and returned to Storybrooke, and she was back to being the bad guy. 

“Regina?” Emma asked in a quiet whisper.

“Yes, dear?”

“So it's a thing in the Enchanted Forest?”

“What's a thing?”

Emma's voice was quiet and tentative. “Gayness.”

Dark eyes flickered open again. “Oh yes, dear. Of course. There has always been homosexuality all through history and is in fact documented in most species. We humans appear to be the only ones who attach a stigma to it.”

“Is there a stigma there?”

Regina pursed her lips. “Yes, there is. It is frowned upon and not spoken about among royalty and those of higher standing, however among peasants it is apparently more a practicality issue.”

“How so?” Emma's brow wrinkled even further.

Regina lifted herself up on her elbow, and rested her head on her hand while she tried to spot something interesting to look at on the opposite wall while still stealing the occasional glance at the blonde. “Well, much like in this world, two men in a domestic coupling were able to both earn reasonable wages and prospered, whereas two women without a man to support them were less prosperous, not helped by the fact that many had extra mouths to feed.”

Emma looked confused, so Regina continues. "There isn't birth control in the Enchanted Forest, not like there is here. Sometimes peasant women would take to whoring to earn enough money to survive, sometimes, well," she sighed, "sometimes men wanted what they couldn't have, so they took it anyway. Or, sometimes, women who couldn't have children together would be the ones to raise the orphans and abandoned children that were born to parents who didn't want them."

She watched Emma process that information, before finally asking another question. “What happens in the upper classes?”

“One would still be married off to the most eligible opposite-sex partner possible, and heirs would be expected so marital duties must bet undertaken, but secret lovers are fairly common among all royalty when a marriage has been arranged. For the men, at least. The perception is that the wife belongs to the husband, and while he may not care whether some handmaid is extra handsy, god help them both if he catch her with another man.” Emma caught a brief look of sadness cross Regina's face before she swallowed thickly and it disappeared again.

“Your marriage--”

“I do not wish to speak of my marriage," Regina said firmly yet not as gruffly as she intended.

“Sorry,” Emma said meekly. Her tongue flicked out and wet thin pink lips. “Regina, you've known Snow a lot longer than I have.”

“I have.”

“Would you have any idea on her... opinion?” Emma stared at the ceiling as though she could bore a hole through it with her eyes alone.

Regina flexed her hand, suddenly aware again of where it was, and she felt muscles tense beneath it. “Had you not spoken about your persuasion at all? Before the curse broke when you were best friends?”

“Not really, not with her. A little with Ruby, but as much as Mary-Margaret talked about love and everything, and despite the haircut, she seemed pretty conservative so I didn't. But now that she remembers who she is, knowing she comes from a world where things are a bit different for people like us--” Regina raised her eyebrows. “Royalty. I mean royalty.” Emma frowned. "It's still really weird thinking about that."

Regina laughs. “Yes, you are the least princessy princess I have ever met, but that is a good thing - I assure you. But you are also the Savior, my dear, and everybody loves you because of it. I am sure they will love you regardless.”

The blonde grimaced. “The higher the pedestal, the greater the fall.”

“True." Regina cocked her head to the side. "The greater the view as well though, and who says you'd fall?”

The corner of Emma's mouth curled up and she looked at Regina square-on for the first time in the conversation. “Why Regina, are you trying to make me see the bright side?”

Regina scrunched her nose up. “It appears so. I know, it doesn't suit me. It is much more fun on the dark side. Much more liberating too.”

“Yeah? How so?”

“When you're seen as a villain, dear, it is much easier to embrace otherness. You do not need to live up to some unachievable standard of perfection. Part of the job description to make people uncomfortable, to push boundaries. It offers much greater freedoms, if you are willing to pay the price.” Her smile was accompanied by a slightly raised eyebrow, and Emma subconsciously licked her lips again.

“Does that mean that you... are you...”

Regina sighed, allowing the question to hang in the air, unanswered. “You know, my mother thought that you and I were together.”

“What?!” Muscles again tightened beneath Regina's palm, and she pulled it away as Emma pulled herself up on her own elbow, facing Regina in an almost mirror-image but she didn't rest her head on her hand as the older woman did.

“Yes. When she asked me about Henry, she knew that he was your son but by his name knew he was also mine. She presumed we'd had him while we were together and that we had later separated.”

Green eyes studied her face. “When I first met her, I mentioned that I shared him with you. I said it was complicated.”

Regina laughed warmly. “That explains it then. Your ever-so eloquent description of the situation.”

“Sorry." Emma laughed. "Kinda takes the 'Henry has two mommies' story to another level. I'm surprised she assumed and accepted it so quickly. I mean she didn't say anything to me or even asked about what I meant.”

Regina waved her hand dismissively. “Obviously not. I did wonder if she always had known my preferences." She almost imperceptibly nodded at Emma's question asked only with her eyes. She shrugged. "I was rather outdoorsy when I was young.”

“You?! You were a tomboy?!” Emma exclaimed incredulously. "You're like, super femme!"

“I preferred wearing trousers and riding horses, I'm not sure if that qualifies me as a 'tomboy.'” 

“Who would have thought! When did you get into all the fancy dresses and jewellery, and doing your hair done up all pretty?”

“Not until I embraced being the Evil Queen. Although, I came to learn that femininity could give you some power over a man. Extreme femininity when wielded properly could give you power over everyone. Do you think I could have been the Evil Queen, feared by all, while marching around in a loose button up with leggings and riding boots?”

Emma laughed at the thought. “I suppose not.” Her brow furrowed. “So did Snow know? That you're... not straight?”

“I don't know. I suppose she may have heard rumours.”

“But she never mentioned it or anything.”

“No.” Regina thought back to the time before she allowed her hatred of the girl to be expressed. "She would dribble on about true love, but I always presumed, as you did, that she was rather traditional in that respect."

“How do you think she would react now?”

Regina pursed her lips. “I believe what you really want to know, dear, is how do I think she will react upon finding out about you.” Emma's silence again answered for her. “Snow likes to think she has boundless love and eternal forgiveness. Life is all rainbows and unicorns -- it's quite sickening. But she is also an idealist, and she can be quite self-centred. She has an idea of how she wants things to be, and she pushes everyone until she gets it, whether or not anybody else is... disadvantaged by her actions. You are the apple of her eye,” Regina smirked, and Emma scoffed at her choice of phrase, “and while she may initially be upset that her image of you is different to reality, I do believe she will be able to put that aside. I think she would deem you worthy of changing her mind over.” Her voice was tinged with sadness.

Emma swallowed “What about David?”

“I'm afraid I don't know your father particularly well, however he does come from common people, and he seems to look at you with the same loving eyes my father did me. If I had to hazard a guess I would say he will only want you to be happy.”

“Snow was close to her father too, wasn't she?”

Regina stiffened a little. “She was, yes. Until I killed him.”

“I've only heard the fairytale side of the story, but I also know you, Regina. I may not know your reasons, but I am quite sure that you had them.” There was an earnestness in Emma's eyes that caused a twinge in her chest.

Her voice was a little husky when she replied. “Perhaps I just did what villains do. They don't call me the Evil Queen for nothing.”

“You're Regina.” Emma said firmly.

“One and the same, dear.”

Emma smiled. “You're a hero, too.”

Dark eyebrows raised high. “Excuse me?”

“You leapt off a boat into stormy seas to rescue me and damn near died in the process!”

Regina scoffed. “Please! I'm a strong swimmer. Henry knows that. If you drowned while I was around he'd never forgive me.” 

Emma smiled knowingly, and moved her hand across the few inches between them, sliding it around the curve of her waist. She twisted and slid her other arm underneath Regina's torso, and wrapped her arms around her in a hug. Bare skin immediately flared with heat at the touch of chests and breasts and bellies. "Thank you." Emma whispered into Regina's neck.

With a deep breath, Regina slid her own hand over Emma's ribs, around her muscled back and held the younger woman close, her nose once again buried in salty-smelling hair and the unbelievably comfortable feeling of security and unity she never thought she'd find. 

She pulled back a moment later, and when green eyes opened right in front of her face, she finally understood the meaning of the saying that eyes are the gateway to the soul. She felt like she could see all of Emma, her pain, her fear, her love, and that hope she keeps buried away in the depths of her being, and she felt as though Emma could see all of her. Every scar, every fault, and every false-front she constructed to protect herself, every ounce of tenderness she kept safe. Emma saw it all, and there was nothing but love in her eyes. Regina leaned forward and pressed their lips together firmly, and her heart exploded as Emma responded and kissed her back immediately with that same passion and intensity that had always burned like fire between them.


End file.
